Collaborators Week: Skin regeneration

Our collaborative endeavours around skin regeneration initially involved collaboration with Prof Chris Baker from St Vincent Hospital, Melbourne. These studies involved the fabrication of biomimetic collagen matrices using electrocompaction for skin tissue engineering. In 2018, we published our first publication wherein the densely packed and highly ordered collagen/ulvan84 (a glycosaminoglycan mimetic) scaffolds were presented, closely mimicking the major structure of skin tissue.

Early work on ulvan84 also involved collaborators at Venus Shell Systems (VSS) focused on understanding how ulvan, a seaweed polymer obtained from a controlled source of cultivated Australian ulvacean macroalgae, interacted with other biomaterials and cells. In 2019, we published our first publication with Dr Pia Winberg, founder of VSS. Ulvan was modified and photo crosslinked to form hydrogels that highly support dermal cell growth.

"Unveiling the encoded wisdom within gels such as Ulvan84 unravels the interconnectedness of nature. From cultivated seaweed, these molecules pave a path toward transformative wound repair in clinical settings, offering hope for future advancements in tissue regeneration," - Dr Pia Winberg, Venus Shell Systems

Our turning point in this area came about over a coffee in Wurzburg Germany with Prof Fiona Wood, Director of the Burns Service of Western Australia, at the Biofab 2018 conference. I was there to present our latest work and to pitch for Biofab 2020 in the ‘Gong.

Fiona and her team are famous for the spray on skin technology - ReCell. In discussion, we thought that the 3D bioprinting may provide some assistance in improving the delivery of the ReCell product. Those studies are currently underway.

A/Prof Mark Fear leads the scientific direction of Fiona’s laboratory and has been instrumental in helping build our collaborative activities.

“This type of long-term collaboration has been essential to progress our research from discovery to making a difference. Bringing multidisciplinary expertise to tackle the problems facing burns patients generates new ideas and provides innovative answers, and in this instance bringing bioprinting, materials science and biology together is helping enable the translation of new skin regenerative therapies into the future,” - A/Prof Mark Fear, Burns Service of Western Australia

More recently, we have engaged the cell biology expertise of Mirella Dottori from the University of Wollongong (UOW) as part of our collaborative team in order to gain knowledge and explore innovative approaches to innervation of regenerating skin.

We still have a way to go – but exciting prospects with a highly talented multidimensional team!

These multidimensional collaborations take time to build but they?are absolutely essential when it comes to taking on big challenges like improving skin regeneration in the clinic.

Related Publications

• Eileen R Wallace, Zhilian Yue, Mirella Dottori, Fiona M Wood, Mark Fear, Gordon G Wallace, Stephen Beirne, Point of care approaches to 3D bioprinting for wound healing applications, Progress in Biomedical Engineering 2023, 5 (2), 023002
• Luciana Y. Daikuara, et al, 3D Bioprinting constructs to facilitate skin regeneration, Advanced Functional Materials, 2022;32(3):2105080.
• Xifang Chen. et al, Bioprinting dermal-like structures using species-specific ulvan, Biomater. Sci., 2021;9:2424-2438.?
• Ying Zhou. et al, Composite tissue adhesive containing catechol-modified hyaluronic acid and poly-L-lysine, ACS Applied Bio Materials, 2020, 3(1), 628.
• Xifang Chen. et al, Development of rhamnose-rich hydrogels based on sulfated xylorhamno-uronic acid towards wound healing application, Biomater. Sci., 2019,7, 3497.
• Lingzhi Kang, et al, Fabrication and in vitro characterization of electrochemically compacted collagen/sulfated xylorhamnoglycuronan matrix for wound healing applications, Polymers, 2018, 10(4), 415.